Cipolla's Pride Organic Tomato Seed

Scientific name

Solanum lycopersicum

Days to maturity

Counted from the day transplants are set out in the garden.

Growth habit

Determinate (bush) tomatoes stay compact, need little or no pruning, can be grown with or without support and ripen their crop over a short window. Indeterminate (vining) tomatoes keep growing all season, should be staked, trellised or caged and pruned, and ripen fruit over a long period.

Soil and feeding

Aim for moderately rich soil with a pH of 6.0–6.8. Feed carefully: too much nitrogen gives lush vines, more fruit rot and later ripening. Seed normally sprouts in 5–7 days. With short determinate types, plant again every 4–6 weeks for a steady supply.

Starting transplants

Sow about 5–6 weeks before your planting-out date; seedlings that grow leggy, root-bound or start flowering in the pot tend to stall once planted. Sow 1/4" deep in open flats (about 20 seeds per row) or one seed per cell in 200-cell trays and cover lightly. Hold the mix at 75–85°F (24–29°C) and keep it evenly moist. When the first true leaf appears, move seedlings up to 50-cell trays or 4" pots, depending on when they will go out. Grow on at a steady 60–70°F (16–21°C) with a complete fertilizer until hardening off; extra light and cooler nights keep plants short and stocky.

Planting out

For the earliest fruit, plant under row cover around your last frost date, and do not leave unprotected plants out through several nights in a row below 45°F (7°C). Space determinate types 12–24" apart and indeterminate types 24–36" apart, in rows 4–6' apart. Set plants deeper than they grew in the pot so the buried stem puts out extra roots, and water them in with a high-phosphorus starter solution to help early yields.

Trellising

For a basket weave, drive 5–6' stakes between every 2–3 plants, with heavier T-posts at intervals and at the ends of the bed, and run twine along both sides as the plants grow. When tall indeterminates outgrow easy reach, add short stake extensions or prune them back.

Pruning

On indeterminate plants, remove all suckers below the strong branch that sits just under the first flower cluster. Low suckers tend to miss the trellis, set fruit close to the soil, draw energy from the upper plant and help soil-borne disease spread. Later in the season you can thin some leaves to improve airflow, or top the plants so the last fruits finish ripening.

Pests and disease

Learn which pests and diseases are common where you grow and plan your controls ahead, starting with resistant varieties and, where needed, approved pesticides. Keep foliage dry, stay out of the planting when plants are wet, avoid handling plants after using tobacco, clear away crop debris and rotate where tomatoes are grown.

Harvest

Tomatoes color from the blossom end up toward the shoulders, and the fruits nearest the stem of each cluster ripen first. Lay soft, ripe fruit in a single layer in shallow, padded trays. Keep fully ripe fruit for home use or nearby sales; the longer and farther the trip to your customer, the earlier you should pick. Any fruit that has started to color will finish ripening off the vine. The green calyx can be left on as a sign of freshness or removed.

Storage

Unblemished, nearly ripe fruit keeps about 4–7 days at room temperature out of the light. To hold fruit longer, choose varieties suited to it, pick a little less ripe and keep at 45–60°F (7–16°C). Colder storage, or picking too green, costs flavor and texture.

Transplants per ounce

Roughly 850 plants per 1,000 seeds; about 10,200 plants per oz. of seed.

Packet

25 seeds.

Seeds per lb.

About 165,000 on average.